Standardization

[John Sullivan]

Piyali notequixpoyohuan,
	The University of Warsaw, under the revitalization project now undertaken by Justyna Olko's team in Warsaw and IDIEZ, will begin a new editorial series of monolingual publications in Nahuatl. We will publish original works in all genres from all variants of Modern Nahuatl. And all of these works will be written in the standardized orthography, based on Horacio Carochi's work, and perfected by Richard Andrews, Joe Campbell and Frances Karttunen. The first work will be a book of children's literature written by Refugio Nava, from Tlaxcala. We have already standardized its orthography, not so difficult, considering the source. Modern Huastecan Nahuatl is also already standardized. So, as we proceed with works from each variant, we will also be proceeding toward a rigorous standardized orthography of Nahuatl that can be used by native speakers of all variants to communicate with each other, as well as be able to read what their ancestors wrote (this implying that we will have to standardize the orthography of Older Nahuatl texts; more fun!)
	Obviously, an educated reader and writer of Nahuatl will have to be versed in the specificities of each variant, but I have a feeling that everyone will find this fascinating, as do we.
	From a happy group of people in Warsaw and Zacatecas,
John

John Sullivan, Ph.D.
Research Scholar in Nahuatl Studies and
Academic Director of the Yale-IDIEZ Nahuatl Language Institute,
Yale University;
Visiting scholar, Faculty of Artes Liberales
University of Warsaw;
Professor of Nahua language and culture
Universidad Autónoma de Zacatecas;
Director, Zacatecas Institute of Teaching and Research in Ethnology
Tacuba 152, int. 43
Centro Histórico
Zacatecas, Zac. 98000
Mexico
Work: +52 (492) 925-3415
Home: +52 (492) 768-6048
Mobile (Mexico): +52 1 (492) 103-0195
Mobile (US): (615) 649-2790
idiez at me.com
www.macehualli.org

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